Veteran journalist Stephen Jones has slammed both the British and Irish Lions and Australia after Joe Schmidt revealed that he would protect his best players ahead of the Test series.
Prior to the three internationals, the Lions will take on a number of teams in order to prepare for the main event.
That includes the Australian franchises – the Western Force, Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies – who contain the Wallabies stars.
However, according to Schmidt, the majority of those top names will be rested for the tour matches, much to the chagrin of Jones, who wants the Lions to make sure it never happens again.
‘Sometimes, there just is no gratitude’
“To come all that way to play an inadequate side is a betrayal of an invitation to the Lions and this time they really should have put their foot down and had the strengths of opponents written into the tour contract. They did not. Why?” he wrote in his Sunday Times column.
“Otherwise, the Lions should have gone elsewhere. It is high time that they worked hard to develop another touring location so that they can, blatantly, hold to ransom one of the regular hosts. Sometimes, there just is no gratitude.”
It is not the first time this has happened either with the Lions regularly not facing the best these countries have to offer ahead of the Test series.
The All Blacks and Springboks have been guilty of doing the same in past years, which has impacted the quality of the tours.
“The cowed way the Lions have failed to wield their own power is pitiful. Two tours ago it was announced that both hosts and Lions had agreed that in the pre-Test games (never call them warm-up matches) the best home players would be included, until just over a week before the first Test. So all the big home teams would have their stars on show,” Jones wrote.
“A senior member of the Lions set-up told me last year that they would be insisting Australia field their strongest teams in the provincial games. Sounds good.
“Not long ago, Phil Waugh, chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union, said: ‘It is important that the Test stars play for their franchises against the Lions.’ Indeed it is.
“But they won’t. This from Joe Schmidt, the Australia head coach, last week: ‘The policy is that we’d probably be very keen to safeguard what we perceive to be our [best] 23, 24 or 25 and then, the rest of the squad, for them to get games to play against the Lions.’
“So all the top players will appear in the non-Test games — apart from 25! It is absolutely ridiculous.”
How it will impact the Lions for the Tests
As well as potentially hampering the overall quality of the games, Jones believes that it will impact the Lions themselves, whose preparation for the Tests could be affected by facing weakened teams.
“Why the panic from Schmidt? The Lions play Western Force 21 days before the first Test; they play Queensland 17 days before; they play the Waratahs 14 days before; and the Brumbies 10 days before,” he added.
“There is significant recovery time for all bar the most serious injuries. The Lions will be playing twice a week.
“And so the Lions will be underpowered, simply because they will not have the quality of opposition they need to perfect their Test operation. Whether or not that is also part of a secret Australian plan is difficult to say.
“This is desperate for the Lions. Andy Farrell, the head coach, will have to sort out his Test team by sifting bogus evidence against weaker opposition.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/stephen-jones-tells-lions-to-hold-opponents-to-ransom-after-joe-schmidt-betrayed-the-famous-touring-side
